Landscaping services/pricing

17 years ago

We have a .23 acre lot and are wanting to put in sprinklers and sod. I got a quote that seems really high. Does $6000 just for sprinklers and installation seem right? They also quoted us $2000 to level and another $2000 to clean and haul. I would really like to do it myself and save money, but my husband doesn't think we can do the work ourselves. (I've been waiting 6 yrs for a yard.) I can't believe the prices!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tyff

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (13)

jimh6278
17 years ago
we are paying $6500 on a .23 rental for:

sod removal and bark installation on large parking strips (corner lot);
sprinklers for the entire lot with controls;
sod removal of a 12 x 100 strip in the back with bark;
weed treatment in back (we will overseed this fall).
tilling a 20 x 30 garden;
placement of RTF sod in front 25 x 40;
hauling all sod and dirt to landfill

as i write this message there are 4 guys on the job working

not sure of the exact name of company. the contact is Glen 801-301-9993. hope this helps.

jim
stevation
17 years ago
Tyff, you're in Utah County if I remember right, and you might try Cardon Landscape in Lindon. I used them six years ago. I'm certain prices have gone up since then, but it cost us $4500 to install all the sprinklers and drip irrigation lines (with all the emitters) for a half-acre lot. We had a lot of grading done on our lot, because a slope had to be leveled and turned into two main terraces with rock walls. I can't remember the price for all the earth moving and cleanup, but it probably wouldn't compare to your job anyway.

My only complaint from that experience was that these guys get so busy in mid-summer that they never finish when they estimated that they would. We called them too late -- I think it was mid-June, so we were in line behind some other clients. So, whoever you pick, move quickly before you have to get in line, too!
Related Discussions
Gardening Services / Landscape Maintenance Recommendation
Q
Comments (8)
I have installed plenty of drip systems that are still fully functional 8 years out, and the plants are very happy as well. The one fact that you tend to gloss over with your praise of "real" irrigation systems, is that the above ground spray is never going to be as efficient in getting maximum water to the roots; a good percentage of the spray is lost to wind and evaporation, on even the most efficient spray systems. I would agree that there isn't much point in putting in drip systems if the landscape design utilizes a majority of high water using plants, or plants that prefer being wet down to avoid insect problems, or where ground covers that root as they spread are being used. In all these cases, it is still possible to use a combination of drip emitters and microspray or misters for the irrigation that is required. The one real advantage I find with installing drip irrigation is that you can target water where it is needed, rather than watering everything. Drip systems also allow for planting different water needing plants in close proximity, and using multiple lines on different valves, a wet plant can be planted next to a dry plant, and both can be happy. Conventional spray systems don't usually allow for such flexibility. Drip irrigation also typically uses much less water to irrigate a given area than spray irrigation does, I don't think there is any debate on this point. As to cost of installation, I don't find that there is that great of a difference between the two types of systems, I never sell my clients on the idea that drip will be less expensive to install, as it typically takes more time to add all the emitters than it would to trench, bury and install fixed spray heads. The savings come over time, with less water used. I do find that animals chewing on drip lines can sometimes be a problem, but this is only occasionally a problem here in most SF Bay Area gardens. As to maintenance, I usually find it sufficient to check the operation of valves once a month, and to clean out filters at the valve once a year. When I have installed battery operated valves, I generally recommend that the client check the battery at least every 6 months. I don't expect to change anyone's mind about which type of system is better; as I don't think anyone can say that one type is always better than another. It really boils down to the actual circumstances of the garden, how it is being planted, soil types, slopes involved, level of maintenance to be provided, etc. I wouldn't continue to install drip irrigation systems if they didn't work, or presented as many disadvantages as you claim they "always" do. In particular, drip systems have real merit and no equal with container plantings on decks and patios, where their ease of installation and operation have no equal. I find that I can install a drip irrigation with large planters and virtually guarantee that the plants will thrive with very little attention required on my part. The results speak for themselves. For homeowners that are interested in installing drip in a more efficient, less hit or miss way, it makes sense to have the system designed by a drip irrigation consultant/outlet that knows their stuff. Two local firms here in the San Francisco Bay Area that will provide free design assistance when buying their materials would include Irrigation Equipment Company here in Berkeley, and the Urban Farmer Store with several outlets in the Bay Area. They both provide occasional free classes on design and installation for homeowners, as well. Either of these firms will be able to point a homeowner in the right direction to use the most appropriate design, materials and method of installation to best match their circumstances. I have no vested interest in either company, but do buy from both of them on a regular basis, and also install both conventional spray as well as drip irrigation systems, with a 10 year and counting maintenance follow up on some of the older gardens I have installed. I haven't found any clients to be complaining about having installed drip in all this time, except where wild animals have become a problem with chewing of lines and/or emitters, and this has mostly only been a problem in specialized designs where I was using drip misters in trees to wet down epiphytic orchids, bromeliads and rhipsalis, and squirrels would chew off the mister heads. Ultimately I was able to resolve the problem by relocating mister heads so that they were mounted on the underside of tree branches rather than the tops of branches, which were more easily accessible to squirrels.
...See More
landscape pricing
Q
Comments (6)
molson, the question is so loose and with so many variables, it's pretty much impossible to answer simply. A couple of threads on the Landscape Design forum may help - check out the one on estimating/budgeting software as well as the one (also posted here) on "wife's first landscaping job". It is fairly apparent from your post that you are new to this business - determining what to charge for your services is pretty much an experiential thing, based on your experience/skill level as a designer/landscaper and your experience on how long it will take accomplish the various facets of that particular job and the cost of materials. You also need to understand what the market in your area will bear as to labor costs and what your time is worth. And there is always that nebulous factor of figuring out your profit margin - what you put in your pocket over and above the cost of time and materials and whatever overhead you may have. Unless you already have an understanding of these various issues, it may make sense to charge based on time and materials to start, adding a percentage to cover profit and other contingencies. Hourly design fees can range from soup to nuts, depending on the designer's experience, the client base and the complexity of the project. Or, you could charge a flat rate for the design part of the project, but be prepared to lose your shirt on that aspect unless you understand upfront what may be involved in the design process. One or two client meetings can easily escalate into 6 or 7, specially if you are new and rather unsure in your presentation. Or maybe your questions were just not stated very thoroughly and we are missing some more vital information. But to give you a $$ amount of what to charge is just not possible or meaningful given the information you have provided.
...See More
The price of personal services these days.
Q
Comments (41)
Essie that is the way I felt when I visited Africa, I tipped big. A child dressed in his traditional African costume expected a dollar tip for a photo, I gave him $2. until I found out how expensive things were there and what workers got paid. Then I tipped more. He probably made a big part of his family's food money. In this country the habit is becoming tip every one who serves, trash man, masseuse, cable man, postman, the list goes on and on. Anyone should be lucky enough to earn what a post man makes plus his benefits and I don't tip those people because they are being paid wages. Some of the places I eat know me as a regular customer and a couple put on what they know I like when I walk in the door, 3 places have done that. One place will say this is on the house this time. These employees get paid for their work just as if they worked in a book store or clerked in a dept store. Sure they are not living wages, but from my experience they are in temp jobs while they are out of school. I tip in restaurants how much depends on the service I get, especially when I am served with a smile. I do not usually tip in buffets, especially if they all they do is bring me water and ask if I want to order off the menu or have the buffet. This post was edited by EmmaR on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 15:14
...See More
Two questions on landscape services and lawn maintenance
Q
Comments (8)
First question: Where do you live? That makes a big difference as to the advice we might give you. And as a corollary to that statement, not knowing where you live is why there are no really good lawn books for you. It seems to me that the lawn books are all written in Indiana for Indianans. So if you live in Minnesota, Vermont, Florida, Texas, Washington, or really anywhere outside of Indiana, the advice will not be the best. And if you live in a big place, please tell us what town you live in. For example SoCal has every hort zone and soil type, so just saying SoCal is not helpful. Even saying Los Angeles is not good because there are not that many lawns in LA proper. Plus LA extends from Long Beach to Santa Monica which covers a lot of ground. What kind of grass do you have and what do you want to have? Do you just want it green, do you want it to be all one type of grass, or do you want it to be the nicest lawn on the block? Lawns need water, mowing, and fertilizer. If you are doing those things right, then they should not need dethatching, crabgrass control, other weed control, insect control, or mechanical aeration. Lime is a different topic. You're going to be surprised at how easy it can be to have a very nice lawn, so here goes. The following is fairly generic with some attempt to expand outside of Indiana. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Proper watering is your first line of defense against weeds. When you water deeply you will not need to water every day. Weed seeds LOVE it when you water every day. If you don't water for a week or two (or three or four), then the weed seeds cannot germinate. So just doing this right will save you the cost of all the herbicides (eventually). Deeply means a full inch all at one time. Measure that by putting out cat food or tuna cans and turning on your sprinkler. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. Mine takes 8 full hours. It can take as little as 20 minutes, so time yours carefully. Then remember that time because that will be the time you water every time you water from now on. Infrequently depends on many factors but is so closely related to air temperature that you should start with this guideline: Above 90 degrees - once per week. Above 80 degrees - once every 2 weeks. Above 70 degrees - once every 3 weeks. Below 70 - once every 4 weeks. If you start now with that schedule then by July your grass will have developed deep roots which can withstand the summer heat and go a full week without watering. There are very few exceptions to this rule (Las Vegas area because of soil, aridity, and heat). Improper watering is the cause of many lawn issues, so get this right. Mowing Most grasses do best when mowed at or near the mower's highest setting. The exceptions are bermuda, centipede, and creeping bentgrass. Those should be mowed at the mower's lowest setting. Mulch mow once a week unless you have bermuda. That needs to be mowed 2x and sometimes 3x per week. Fertilizer You mentioned Scott's. I believe they are selling you more stuff than you need. It sounds good when you hear it, but you don't need all the stuff they push. One of the elements of lawn care which has come to prominence since the late 90s is the importance of a healthy "soil food web" in the garden. We're talking about microbes (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and microarthropods). These critters need food to thrive and develop a healthy soil for you. So what do they eat? They eat food. If you look at the ingredients on a bag of organic fertilizer you'll see it contains wheat, corn, soy, alfalfa, and some animal byproducts (chiefly feather meal and poultry litter). All these materials are food for the surface layer of soil microbes. Lower layers live off of the waste products from the upper layers of microbes. After going through 3 weeks of microbial processing, the food you put on the soil is converted into natural plant food for your grass and delivered at root level. You don't have to do anything! The Scott's 4-step products don't have any microbial food in them so your soil can become less than healthy as the food is depleted. In fact the insecticide in their product actually kills the microarthropods...because they are insects. Wiping out an entire class of species in the food web can throw off the balance of nature until the species eventually return. All this is to help get you over the hurdle of using organic fertilizer. Most of the lawn gurus are using organics; however, they are not necessarily buying organic fertilizer. It turns out you can buy the ingredients at your local feed store for about 1/6 the cost of commercially bagged organics. The application rate is from 15 to 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you accidentally double that rate it will not hurt the grass, so there's a huge safety factor built in. Or, if you want to use chemical a approach anyway, someone can help you with that, too. How often you fertilize depends on what approach you take and what grass you want. Soil testing If you want to have the best lawn on the block, or if you are having trouble growing any lawn at all, then you need a soil test. The only place to have that done is Logan Labs in Ohio. Sure you can get it done locally, but for $25 the test you get at LL will be much MUCH better than what you get at your local university or county extension service. If you do that, post your results here and morpheuspa can help you understand it and tell you what to get. Good soil tests are necessarily complicated. Cleaning up bare patches and turning them into grass will depend on what your grass is. Answer the questions at the top of this post and we can help you more.
...See More
grvtykllr
17 years ago
I could do that whole thing for 2 grand total !
Now Im not talking about you pay me and Ill do it, Im saying I could do the sprinklers and install and dig the ditches for them and level the yard and tap in the wireing for a timer and all of that for less than 2 grand by doing it myself instead of hiring someone.
It seems really high to me.
Iv done several sprinkler systems and none of them cost that much, especialy for that size. I personally think your being ripped off. You can get pvc for about 3 bucks for 10 foot sections, the box about 50, a 9 station timer for another 40, the heads for about 3 bucks each. the auto valves run about 80 bucks for a set of 3. Leveling is alot of work by hand with a long 2x4 and tilling it all to make it soft. It can be done though.
You can find most the info on this website, and anything else you can find from google.
Its alot of work, its worth paying somenoe else to do it but I think your bid is way too high.
Roll up your sleeves, kick your husband in the butt and get to work, or atleast get a few more prices from contractors.
stevation
17 years ago
Yeah, back when we bought this house, I wanted to do my sprinkler system myself, since I had done it in California at our previous home. But my wife reminded me that the CA house already had the front yard done, and all I did was add on a few valves for 200 sq ft of sod in the backyard and a drip line (typical tiny CA lot). She also said something like "I want sod down within three or four weeks for the kids -- not three or four months!" I had to agree that it would get done faster if I hired someone, as much as it pained this die-hard do-it-yourselfer.

I did, however, plant all of my 200+ shrubs and 40+ trees by myself, which was a serious job with all the rocks and clay in our soil. Over that two-week period, I lost 15 lbs from all the sweat and labor and developed bronchitis from breathing all the dust (had a few sick days from work at the end of it all!). So, I suppose there are tradeoffs with any decision like this. :-)

Oh yeah, I would add kudos to my awesome neighborhood -- we decided to lay the sod ourselves, but the neighbors said, "Nobody lays sod alone around here!" So, one Saturday morning in July, we had 30 people come over and got 5000 sq ft of sod laid in an hour and a half. It was a great time!
spyfferoni
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks for the replies. We were talking and are thinking that we should have someone trench for us and install the sprinklers ourselves. I want to install and drip system for the beds and garden area too. I was hoping to get it done before planting time, but I may have to keep the garden spot as it was last year and put in my raised beds with permanent walk ways in the Fall. The problem is if we do it ourselves I may risk it never getting done. My DH is great at starting stuff, but has a hard time finishing projects. I may call around and see if we can get someone to "consult" and help us along the way, rather than do everything for us, and also get some other quotes. We could rent a bobcat and buy a tiller for cheaper than hiring these guys.

Thanks---I'll keep you posted.

Tyff
sunslight
17 years ago
I'm in Utah County (Provo) and think that's a bit high too.
You get what you pay for is great, if it is a job that's worth that much money--but I really doubt it's going to be that way, unless they have a landscape architect working with you and then when they come in, they do everything perfectly, including clean up and also guarantee your satisfaction, without question.

A few years ago, I got an estimate for water sprinklers for my front 1,500 sq. ft. lawn area. They came in at between, $2,300 & $3,000.

I finally, decided to go 1/2 way with a younger fellow who looked like he could use the money.

Well, he did. Except, he used "pick-up," or left-over parts, put in inferior sprinklers, placed the supply laterals in some places, such that they were 1" below the soil. covered the whole thing over before I could map it out. --I guess that's what I get for trying to be nice--or maybe it was ok, and he just didn't know what he was doing, but he said he did and had done many jobs and was licensed.
Later, I learned that you don't have to be licensed to install sprinklers, just have a business license.

If you can do the work yourself that's great, but it is a great deal of work. My yard still isn't in. just bare soil, with weeds.

I had a backhoe come in a do a grading, but when I checked, the grade still runs towards the house...and I'm just too tired to fight with them anymore. So, make sure that whoever does the work, if you go that way, will not give you any hassels, if it doesn't meet your expectations. And while you're at it, get a drawing, with the exact type/size of pipe, sprinklers, heads being used--make certain drains are installed properly; and have the put in a larger (more station) control box than you need at this time. The few dollars more spent now, will come in handy, when you want to expand or do some different things, later on.

btw: if any one knows someone--a landscape contractor who is good, reasonable, stands behind their work, and might be able to give me a free estimate on what I need to do, please send me a message.

Good luck on getting it in. Look around for some more estimates. --it's sort of like shopping for replacement windows: I had a few estimates at >$20,000!. Then they droped to 18K, then to 12K, but still too much, when most people were coming in between $4,000 to $6,000. --I know a high end window cost lots (I don't need a high-end window), but $22,000 for windows? It pays to look around.

Bob
spyfferoni
Original Author
16 years ago
I've gotten several estimates this week and so far the best is one for $7000 that includes sprinklers and a drip system, leveling, a couple of truck loads of top soil, and removing the weeds and trash in my yard. He said he would guarantee the sprinklers for a year. The guy used to work with my next door neighbor who is a brick mason. He started doing landscaping which he enjoys much more. They are 3 brothers and a cousin and seem like decent guys. They speak mostly Spanish, which is fine since we both speak Spanish. It is a lot of money, but probably a lot cheaper than a divorce. ( ; I'm kidding, but really having the yard done will take some strain(7 yrs worth) off of our marriage. I just want it done. It is hard to keep a decent garden when the rest of the yard if filled with weeds, and all of the bugs that hide in them.

Tyffanie
stevation
16 years ago
I hear you Tyff -- we paid someone so my wife would be happy, too. Our twins were two then, and she didn't want them playing in a dirt backyard. It was something I had to cave in on to keep the family (i.e., the *wife*) happy!
james38
16 years ago
The pricing they are giving you does seem a little much, I do this kind of work for a living so i could get it done for a much better price. If you would like you can email my company directly at aaashamrock@yahoo.com we can arrange to give you bid. Good luck to you.

Jim
bindersbee
16 years ago
I'd say that's a pretty good price actually. Most homeowners are shocked at how much it costs to put in a yard. Heck, I've been shocked and I'm a pro- I should have known better!

We are DIY'ing ours though I do work for a landscape contractor (I can't afford us! LOL!) I've spent $2,000 just on parts for our sprinkler system and that's at contractor's pricing. It will cost me $15,000 to put in our yard at wholesale cost and doing most of the work ourselves. If I were to pay a landscaper, it would be in the $50,000 range but it would be done in 3 weeks rather than the 3 years (so far) it's taken us and I'm not even to the part where I get to do all the planting yet. My yard is about 1/3 acre.

At least you don't live in a city which requires you to put it all in within a year. We get a lot of calls from freaked out first-time homeowners in Herriman and South Jordan. We don't even call them back because we are pretty sure they have no idea what it costs and we don't want to waste our time bidding. To be fair though, we do mostly large jobs.
bpgreen
16 years ago
If I were going to spend that much, rather than installing an irrigation system, I would install native sod and forgo watering.
cyclewest
16 years ago
That's part of our problem. There is no way that we have the patience to pull out all of the existing yard to start from scratch, but there are some limitations to what we want to do. The debate is whether we can make some small changes that will improve the overall look and feel, but that just gets us back to not having an overall master plan. I think it would be easier on the front yard, since it is much smaller on our pie-shaped lot, but I'm focused on the backyard where I want to establish fruit trees, strawberry beds, more raspberries, and, of course, include some flowers in the view from the house.
stevation
16 years ago
Cycler,

Do you want to start a new thread about your landscape plans that I saw on your blog? I would have a few comments, but I don't want to have it buried in this thread which is about a different topic. I'm sure Kliddle and others will chime in, too.

Steve

Landscaping services/pricing

Comments (13)

jimh6278

stevation

Related Discussions

grvtykllr

stevation

spyfferoni
Original Author

sunslight

spyfferoni
Original Author

stevation

james38

bindersbee

bpgreen

cyclewest

stevation

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Landscaping services/pricing

Comments (13)

Related Discussions

spyfferoniOriginal Author

spyfferoniOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

spyfferoni
Original Author

spyfferoni
Original Author